


Tethered

by bitterbones



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And he thinks himself to be quite charming, Complete, Creampie, Cunnilingus, F/M, Fluff, Force Bond (Star Wars), He is Ben Solo in this, Mild Angst, Oral Sex, Rey is less amiable to that, Reylo Baby, Scavenger Rey, Sex in an AT-AT, Smuggler Ben, Smut, The Force Made Them Do It, Unplanned Pregnancy, pregnant sex (she's only 3 months)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-02-25 10:20:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22190689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitterbones/pseuds/bitterbones
Summary: In which Ben visits Jakku while on a smuggling run with Han and finds himself strangely connected to an obstinate scavenger girl. What happens next can only be the will of the Force.The wrench dropped from Rey’s hand, clattering noisily on the grated floor. Neither of them seemed to notice, strangely beguiled. She settled on her knees between his legs, her hands running up the length of his thighs. Her touch was searing. They were both utterly and inexplicably entranced. Total strangers, and yet…
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 163
Kudos: 924





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [katieitsmee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katieitsmee/gifts).



> For this tumblr prompt: AU where Ben didn’t turn or even go to Luke’s school) Ben accompanies Han & Chewie to Jakku to attempt to get the Falcon back. He encounters Rey. They hit it off & end up sleeping together. Months later, Ben feels something in the Force. He returns to Jakku and finds her pregnant with his baby. Rey realizes she should have left Jakku with him when he offered. Case in point, pregnancy fluff.😁
> 
> (Thanks anon!)
> 
> Gifted to my pal Katie bc she is very chill and positive and those are the kinds of vibes we need in this fandom rn <3

When they jerked out of hyperspace over the rusted wastes of Jakku, Ben heaved a tired sigh. The Solo men had been at this particular jaunt through the cosmos for close to two months. Hijinks had been had, credits gained, spice and contraband smuggled. A success, all-in-all, minus a few hiccups— Ben now brandished a new scar on his right bicep. He would tell his mother that a blaster discharged while he was cleaning it— and now they were both tired, ready to return home. 

Or so Ben had thought, until Han inputted unfamiliar coordinates into the hyperdrive. Jakku. And here they were. No explanation given, no matter how much the younger Solo had nagged. 

“Okay,” Ben groused, running a hand through his hair as Han piloted them towards the orange desert below, “Are you going to explain?” 

“No.” Han said, taciturn, “You’re going to stay put on the  _ Falcon _ while I take care of some business. Got it?” 

He was bringing them in low over a settlement of tents and shacks formed of scrap. Dust kicked up and locals of a variety of species began to scatter away from their makes-do landing pad, a patch of semi-flat sand. 

Chewie poked his head into the cockpit and cooed just as Ben kissed his teeth defiantly. He was almost thirty, he  _ would not _ be sidelined on the ship while his old man had all the fun. He hadn’t asked to be dragged along, so they at least owed it to him to include him in the antics. 

“I’ll cut you a deal, old man,” he smirked, riding easy with the familiar jolt of the  _ Falcon _ touching down, “You and Uncle Chewie go out there without me, and I give mom a call and let her know about the fun we had in the Hosnian system. I get so bored locked up in here all by myself.”

Leia had long since accepted that her boys were born smugglers, her only insistence was that they keep it as far from her work as they could. Hosnian Prime was as close as it got, the front door of her beloved galactic senate. If they had been caught carrying those illegally modded blaster rifles through the seedy underbelly of the core, she never would have lived it down. 

Han blanched and Chewie chuffed, amused by his nephew’s ambition. 

There was a beat of loaded silence, Ben waiting, Han fuming, before the older man conceded through clenched teeth, “ _ Fine _ .” 

Ben grinned and clapped his father on the shoulder, taking a moment to revel in his small victory. “Great! Now, why are we here? What’s the objective?”

Han pushed out of the pilot’s chair and grumbled to himself as he shoved past his son. Leveling a glare at Ben that could only be construed as deadly, “ _ I _ have a debt to pay off and a few deals to broker.  _ You _ can tag along if you’d like, but no talking. This isn't core world melodrama we’re dealing with, Jakku is cutthroat. These people are desperate, they’ll kill you and strip you for parts without a second thought. Don’t care how  _ charming _ you think you are.” 

Ben shifted and felt the familiar weight of his blaster at his hip. Reassured, he took his father’s warning in stride and followed him to the exit ramp. Chewie lumbered along behind him, bowcaster slung over a hairy shoulder, “So you admit I’m charming?” 

Han pointedly ignored him. 

As the ramp lowered with hissing hydraulics, he offered a bit more, “This is going to take a while. If you get bored, don’t wander too far. You got your com?”

Ben reached into his vest pocket and produced it, flipping it into the air and catching it again in his wide palm, “Yup.” 

He popped the ‘p’ and Han rolled his eyes, descending the ramp and stepping out into the brutal Jakku sun. Ben coughed as he followed, the air was unbearably dry and the sunlight was blinding. Around him the air reeked of filth and luggabeast shit. 

“What a hole,” he mumbled, eyes wandering the stalls and tented pavilions. The residents of the outpost were all filthy, their faces lined and sun damaged. 

Chewie barked.  _ Not too late to wait in the ship. _

Ben ignored him, and followed behind them as they began to wind their way through the narrow, dusty corridors of the outpost. He could already feel a thin layer of grime settling over his whole body. It reminded him of Tatooine, if Mos Eisley were somehow poorer and shittier. In the over ten years he had worked with his father he had been to many shady, dingy places, but this one in particular jarred him. 

“What’s this place called?” Ben asked, all around them scavengers and junk traders stopped to watch them pass. The three of them stuck out, clothes clean and untorn. Behind them a zabrak was circling the  _ Millennium Falcon  _ as though he were assessing it for parts. All of it made him uneasy, but he didn’t show it. He carried himself with his usual confidence, it hadn’t failed him yet.

“Niima Outpost.” Han replied, and Chewie grunted in confirmation. Both were obviously tense, and when they came to a stop in front of a stall, Chewie spun to face a gathering crowd of onlookers while Han slammed his fist against the rusted counter. The sound drew the attention of the Crolute shopkeeper within. 

He was fat, green, and ugly. 

Ben’s fingers flexed reflexively over his blaster. From the crowd a few poor sods called for credits, suddenly beggars and not scavengers. 

“Plutt.” Han greeted the Crolute, disdain obvious in his tone. 

Ben scowled, watching over his father’s shoulder. Then something caught his attention, something completely innocuous from the corner of his eye. Nothing more than a slip of a human girl in plain desert garb. She shouldn’t have drawn his eye. There was nothing immediately extraordinary to her appearance as she loitered at the back of the crowd. 

_ And yet… _

It was a familiar sort of compulsion, a singular sort of need that could not logically be explained. The Force, of course. He’d been sensitive to it his whole life, could even pull off a few tricks and plant easy suggestions in impressionable minds. 

But sensations like that which was blooming in his chest, more primordial compulsions, those were uncommon. He knew not to ignore them, though. The Force would only let one avoid it for so long before it landed screaming bloody murder at their feet, demanding they contend with it. What a volatile bitch it could be. 

Begrudgingly, he tore himself away from the haggling unfolding between Han and Unkar Plutt and made his way toward the girl. Not a half hour planetside and he was already violating orders, not that it mattered. He still had his comlink. 

The crowd had already begun to disperse as it became clearer the three smugglers were armed and none were aspiring philanthropists. The girl remained rooted, pretty mouth parted as if she were surprised. Her brow was slightly furrowed. She must have felt it too, whatever it was that drew him to her. 

He paused a few feet in front of her, not wanting to frighten her off. Dark eyes took her in, she was about what Ben would expect from a wastelander; small and plain. Her skin was tan and there was a smattering of freckles over her nose, underlying her hazel eyes. Her chestnut hair was drawn back into three tight buns. Over her shoulder was slung a bo staff cobbled from scrap. 

She was assessing him right back, eyes narrowing exactingly, undaunted by his superior size even as she was consumed by his shadow. 

“Who are you?” She asked, her accent distinctly  _ not  _ one he would have expected on Jakku. It was almost Coruscanti. 

“Ben,” he extended a hand between them, but she only looked at it confusedly, so he let it drop. “Er… right, Ben Solo.” 

She twisted her mouth and stared at him, not offering up anything in return. Ben took it in stride, deciding this lack of social grace must be typical on such a barren, backwater planet. 

“And you are?” 

The girl ignored his question and instead rivaled it with her own, “What was that just now? What did you do to me? I could hardly move.” 

Her staff dropped from her shoulder to her hand and she pointed it at his face, glaring. 

“Woah, woah, take it easy there, kid.” He raised his hands, palms facing outward. He gave his best charming smile but she didn’t so much as waver, undeterred. “I felt it, too. It wasn’t me. That was a Force thing. I don’t know the exact name for it, but it was a compulsion. For you it was  _ stay put _ for me it was  _ go over there _ .” 

Her eyes narrowed skeptically, “Why?” 

He shook his head, a bead of sweat gathering at his temple and darting down to his jaw, “I don’t know. Sometimes the Force just compels” 

Sniffing, she seemed to accept his explanation, albeit reluctantly. She lowered her staff and Ben dropped his hands, some tension fleeing his body.

“Now, care to tell me your name? We’re going to be buddied up all day, so, unless you prefer ‘kid’?” He shrugged his shoulders, giving an easy smile. 

The girl rolled her eyes, “My name’s Rey. And I don’t have the Force, so buzz off.” 

She turned on heel, boots crunching in the dirt as she made to leave. Ben was perfectly content to let her, he didn’t want to waste away his whole day loitering around some junk rat. But something in his chest revolted, like a tether pulled taut, he tripped forward after her with a strangled cry of, “Wait!” 

Rey must have felt it too, because she stopped dead in her tracks, stiff. 

“Oh, kid,” Ben laughed sardonically, “This is  _ definitely _ the Force. Which, and please do take notes, is not something you do or don’t have. It’s something you are or are not  _ sensitive  _ to.” 

She cast him a sideways glance over her shoulder, “Well then I’m not  _ sensitive  _ to it. You come across as a real ass, Ben Solo.” 

“Whatever.” He chuffed, righting himself. “Where are you going? I think we’re tethered for the time being.” 

“Tethered?” 

Ben nodded. Despite his ultimate rejection of the Jedi lifestyle, he had done some reading in his youth. He’d never heard of this specific phenomenon, but from what he knew of others he could come to some simple conclusions. 

“I think we’re stuck until we complete a certain task, maybe until a certain amount of time as passed.” 

Rey’s face scrunched in confusion, almost cutely, “That would make perfect sense  _ if  _ I were Force sensitive.” She started walking away, and this time Ben kept close behind. 

“You are.” 

“Am not” 

“Are to.” 

“Shut up, Ben. Stop following me.” She hissed, slamming the end of her staff into the dust at his feet. The little cloud the impact created coated his boots in a fine layer of beige. 

Grinding his teeth, his brows shot near to his hairline in frustration. He threw his hands up and huffed, “Fine.” 

Rey made it five feet before their invisible tie was pulled taut once more and Ben was jerked forward, Rey backward. 

“Shit!” She yelped, landing on her ass in the sand. 

Ben was less fortunate, finding himself with a mouthful of the stuff. He sputtered and spat, pawing at his tongue as he sat up. 

“Spee? Forth.” He slurred, still swiping in a futile attempt to rid himself of the grit. He’d need to rinse his mouth with water. 

Rey’s expression soured, and she watched him struggle for a moment before taking pity and offering him her canteen, “Not too much. Off-worlders always take water for granted here on Jakku.” 

He took a long draw then swished it around his mouth. It was warm, but it got the job done. When he spat it out in the middle of the marketplace no one so much as batted an eyelash. Far worse things must have been spewed far more often. The thought made him want to get off of the ground. 

Rey leveraged herself up with her staff, watching passively as Ben hoisted up his own massive body. 

“Okay so, what now?” She groused, glaring at him like this was somehow his doing, “We’re stuck together until further notice?” 

“So it would seem.” Ben replied, wry.

“Well,” She slung her staff back over her shoulder and dropped her hands to her hips, “You’re no help. I’ve got stuff to do at home, I can’t waste time dawdling in Niima all day.”

Taking note of how thin she was Ben figured that was true. Wasted time on Jakku likely equated to wasted food, every moment counted. Touching his vest pocket he found that his com was still there, unjostled by the fall. 

“Then I’ll come home with you. I promise I won’t break anything or cause any problems, I’ll just hang out until whatever this is blows over.” He didn’t want to, but he also didn’t want to get the poor girl killed. 

She sighed, dropping her shoulders in defeat, “Fine. There isn’t much to break, but please don’t talk my ear off the whole time. You aren’t half as charming as you seem to think you are.” 

Ben scoffed in faux offense, then gave chase as Rey began to strut away. He knew he was charming, he didn’t need some sand rat’s approval to reassure him of that. 

The journey back to her home was awkward and mostly quiet. He slipped down one sand dune, unfamiliar with how to traverse the terrain. Rey laughed at him from its crest before sliding down to join him in the gritty trough. 

“Here.” She passed him her bo staff, “Use this to keep yourself steady. If you fall too far then I’ll get jerked around, too.” 

His hand dwarfed the shaft of it, but it was better than nothing, “Thanks.” 

She nodded, tight lipped, and they carried on. 

Eventually, as the sun reached its scorching midday peak, they came to her home. If it could even be called that. It was a fallen AT-AT from the rebellion era, rusted over and worn smooth by wind and sand. It was a hunk of junk, in Ben’s eyes. But he supposed that, on a planet like Jakku, one had to make do with what little was available. 

After her passed her staff back to her, Rey opened the hatch on its belly manually and let him inside. It was dark and blissfully cooler than the desert which engulfed it. A few dim lights flickered to life on the ceiling, their wires vanishing into the wall panels, running upwards towards the ‘roof’. It would seem she was quite the little mechanic. 

On the far wall was a set of shelves which bore an abundance of mechanical implements. To the left was a workbench which housed a few half made droids, and beyond that, in the portion of the AT-AT that once carried stormtroopers, was a custom sand speeder. To his right was a hammock and a small cooktop, beside it a wilting flower, dry petals dusting the floor around it. 

“Nice—

The empty compliment died on his tongue as his eyes settled on a wall of odd tally marks. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. Each one standing individual of the last as a testament to something he could not place. Still, he was overcome with a great sense of loneliness. Rey lived like this, out here, all alone? 

Following him into the AT-AT Rey paused beside him, glancing blankly between him and the wall. She offered no explanation. 

Rey plopped down in front of her work bench and began to fiddle with one of the broken droids. 

“So… just gonna ignore me then?” Ben asked, staring pointedly at her back. 

“Yup.” She popped the ‘p’. She meant business. 

Ben sighed, boredom already creeping in, and decided he might as well help himself to that hammock and an afternoon nap. Smuggling was hard work after all, and the bunks on the  _ Falcon _ were too small for his unwieldy frame to fit comfortably. 

Reclining with his hands behind his head, he found the hammock a bit small, but his legs could hang off the end comfortably enough. Shutting his eyes, Ben sighed and pushed against the floor, letting the rocking motion it provided lull him to rest. 

Only he couldn’t sleep. Her tinkering was damn obnoxious, she had a  _ blow torch _ . 

“You better have goggles on,” he tutted, examining his cuticles, “Flash burns are nothing to shake a bo staff at.” 

The flashing and banging stopped and Rey turned to face him, still on her knees. She pushed a pair of tinted goggles up her forehead, “What do you know about flash burns? You look like you’ve never held a wrench in your life.” 

Ben sat up, pursing his mouth as he slung his legs over the side of the hammock, “Presumptive. I’m a smuggler, I practically grew up on a Corellian freighter. I can handle my tools.” 

Rey drew nearer, sliding forward on her knees, a wrench clutched in her hand. Her eyes were wide and curious. Ben could practically taste her yearning for adventure in the air between them. 

“That freighter that landed… it’s yours?” 

“My dad’s, but someday it’ll be mine.” He smiled lopsidedly. He didn’t mind her proximity. In fact, when she paused, he found himself shifting frustratedly. “She’s called the  _ Millenium Falcon _ .” 

The wrench dropped from Rey’s hand, clattering noisily on the grated floor. Neither of them seemed to notice, strangely beguiled. She settled on her knees between his legs, her hands running up the length of his thighs. Her touch was searing. They were both utterly and inexplicably entranced. Total strangers, and yet… 

“I really want to kiss you right now, Ben.” Rey breathed, parted lips hardly moving with her words, “Is this the Force, too?” 

Ben’s heart thundered in his chest, his head was foggy and he wasn’t certain of his motivations. He definitely wanted to kiss her. He leaned over her until their breaths mingled between them, “I think it is.”

“Are we going to?” 

Ben swallowed hard, ever modicum of his common sense wailing at him to back off. She was at least a decade younger than him and obviously inexperienced. But stars help him, she was so beautiful. He hadn’t realized it before, but he saw in now in the dim light of her makeshift home. The cut of her cheekbones, the bow of lip, her wide eyes and soft mouth. 

Tilting her chin up with his finger and thumb, he captured her lips in a searing kiss. It was slow and sensuous, and Rey was clumsy. Ben led her through it, gently showing her how to slant her mouth against his, how to part her lips and breathe him in. It was likely her first kiss, Ben realized. He was careful when he cupped the back of her neck and pulled her closer. Her hands slipped from his thighs to the hammock, supporting her weight as she pushed up and into him, deepening it. 

Humming, Ben broke the kiss wetly. She followed him, mouth searching, but he turned his head, wanting both of them to have a moment to consider. His pupils were blow wide, mouth red. They panted and held each other’s eyes for a long, fiery moment before Rey took the initiative. She stood up so that she hovered over him, her fingers traced along his jawline, her eyes kept flitting back to his lips. 

Ben’s cock throbbed in his trousers. Somewhere in the back of his mind he mused that this wasn’t the turn he had expected this day to take. 

Rey initiated the second kiss, fingers curling almost painfully into his hair as their mouths met sloppily. This time she was less keen to follow and more eager to try and lead. Ben groaned into her mouth, excited by her enthusiasm. His hands caressed up her sides, one settled at her waist but the other ventured further, cupping a small breast through her tunic. 

Rey broke away again, chest heaving, and peppered kisses over his whole face, interspersing the assault with words, “Ben,” kiss, “I don’t,” kiss kiss, “Understand.” Kiss. 

He canted his head and caught her mouth again, hand slipping from her hip to play at the waistband of her capris. He kissed a line down the column of her throat, and when his fingers dipped and found her wet and pliant, she whimpered. 

“I think the Force wants us to have sex.” He breathed, almost incredulously. That line was one he’d never used before. In this case it wasn’t even a line. 

Rey whined and shifted her hips as his fingers pressed against her clit, she grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away, “You’re lucky I feel it too or I’d deck you for saying that.” 

Ben chuckled sheepishly and stood, catching Rey by the waist and pulling her flush to him. He savored the soft press of her breasts to his chest. He kissed her again. He never wanted to stop kissing her, she tasted so damn sweet. 

When they parted he murmured against her lips, “That hammock won’t hold and I don’t want to fuck you up against a wall, got any other options?” 

She was adorable, flush from her scalp to her toes, no doubt, “There’s a blanket under the hammock, we could spread—

He was already on it. Ben extended his arm and the blanket was sent flying, spreading itself in the air and land unfolded on the floor. Rey didn’t seem even remotely off put by this show of his Force ability, she didn’t seem to care at all. In fact she only seemed concerned with tending to the matter at hand, namely his cock, which she was groping curiously through his clothing. 

“ _ Rey. _ ” He sighed her name as he walked them backward towards the blanket. 

“I’ve never done this before,” she admitted as they fell to the floor, Rey settling in his lap so that her ass rubbed salaciously against his erection. They kissed again, her hands rough in his hair as his arms came around her waist. 

Fuck, he loved the feel of her against him. The soft slide of her tongue into his mouth and her fingers pulling his hair. 

They parted and he nipped her throat, tugging carefully at the scarf she wrapped around her body. 

“I’ll be gentle,” He promised, and he meant it. He wouldn’t dare hurt this girl, “I’ll teach you.” 

Once she was rid of the scarf he helped her pull her tunic over her head, then her breast band, baring her upper half to him. She didn’t shy under his eyes, only blinked curiously as though she were awaiting his appraisal. 

He cupped her left breast in his palm, small and pert, it fit perfectly. Rey whimpered softly as he caressed her, lids fluttering. 

“So beautiful, Rey.” He whispered, leaning forward and kissing across her shoulder, then down so he could lave at her tit. Ben pushed her down onto the blanket, nipping at the underside of her breast before trailing his lips over the flat plane of her abdomen. She was too lean, likely malnourished, but now wasn’t the time. 

When he came to the fastener of her capris he met her gaze over her heaving chest. Her honey eyes were wide with want, face flush from his machinations. 

He unfastened her pants and she eagerly lifted her hips, aiding him in pulling them down, then kicking them off. 

Two broad tipped fingers trailed over the wet patch at the center of her underwear, “Can I kiss you down here, Rey?” 

Rey shuddered at his touch, and again at the cold as he peeled the garment away. She was pretty down there, too. Almost peachy, dewy with arousal and topped with a thatch of curled brown hair. His fingers traced along her seam, feeling her clit and entrance but lingering over neither, teasing. 

Ben asked again, voice low, almost dangerous, “Can I put my mouth on you, Rey?” 

A shiver wracked her body and her fingers curled tight into the threadbare material of the blanket. 

“ _ Please _ .” 

Ben smiled and wasted no time. He hooked her legs over his shoulders and licked a long, hot stripe over her center. He parted her folds with two fingers and took a second swipe, savoring the taste of her. Above him Rey writhed and cried out. 

He began to circle her clit with two fingers as he delved with his lips and tongue, taking care not to apply too much pressure. 

“Ben!” She shouted, and her hands dropped to tangle with his hair, pressing him harder into her cunt. The jut of his nose against her slick flesh seemed to surprise her and she yelped. 

Keeping two fingers firmly on her clit, Ben teased her entrance with another, circling as she squirmed. Her heels dug into his shoulders and Ben moaned into her cunt, his cock twitching uncomfortably within the confines of his pants.

It was too fucking much to have her wet and pliant under him like this. Beautiful and begging for more. He shifted his mouth to tend to her clit while he carefully penetrated her with a single digit. He went slow, inch by inch, keeping steady suction on her clit the whole time. 

He didn’t want to frighten or hurt her, he wanted this to be  _ good _ so even when he left—

_ When he left… _

For a moment he slowed, mind preoccupied with the concept of fucking this fiery woman and then leaving her alone on Jakku. Rey wouldn’t have it. She keened, and cried out his name like a mantra so he relegated the thought to the back of his mind and redoubled his efforts. 

One finger snug and curling into her cunt, he introduced a second, her walls constricting with vice-like intensity around them. He moaned against her flesh, whole body burning at the thought of burying his cock in that. And that was where this was headed, the Force would insist. 

The vibration of his noise at her clit was enough sensation to send Rey’s virginal body careening over the edge. Her fingers dug harder into his scalp and her cunt clenched around his fingers. 

Ben kissed and sucked and plundered her through it, appreciating how unapologetic her orgasmic cacophany was. She had grown up in a place that had not taught her bodily shame, his cock was weeping at the prospect. 

When she finally relaxed her grip enough for him to pull off, Rey jumped him. Clambering into his lap once more she kissed him hard and sloppy, their teeth scraping in her eagerness, but he could only lean into it. Her touch was fire and her naked body pressed up to him made Ben wonder after the many gods he’d heard of in his travels. 

Lips barely parted from his she began to work his vest off of his shoulder, “Your turn next.” 

He helped her along, pulling his shirt over his head and tossing it to some long forgotten corner of the AT-AT, “You can’t blow me, I won’t last if you blow me.” 

He never thought he’d find himself actively dissuading a woman from sucking his cock, but here he was. Ben needed to be inside of her, had never needed anything so badly in his life, he wouldn’t ruin his shot at it by blowing a hasty load in her mouth. 

Rey fingers traced the lines of his broad chest and abdomen, eyes black with need as she took him in, “Blow?”

“You can’t use your mouth on me.” He groaned as she kissed her way across his chest. 

“Okay.” She agreed mildly, fingers already toying with his fly. 

He helped her push his trousers off of his legs, briefs going with them, leaving his cock to bounce freely. 

Rey blinked at it, and then, much to Ben’s amusement, she pressed the tip of her finger to the tip. She poked his cock, her head tilted to the side, buns askew. 

“I’ve never seen a human one before,” she stated, plainly. Her fingers curled around it gently, investigating.

Ben puffed his cheeks, trying to indulge her exploration without getting too worked up, “Credit for your thoughts?”

She traced a fingertip along the underside of his cock, smearing the precum that had beaded at the head, “It’s big. How’s it going to fit?” 

Ben leaned forward and pressed a tentative kiss to the corner of her mouth, in Rey’s hand his dick twitched. 

“It’ll fit,” he reassured. Then he took her face between his hands and kissed her more thoroughly. He’d never kissed this much during sex before, he found that he liked it. At least with Rey he did. 

“Since it’s your first time it might be easier if I’m on top,” Ben explained, easing her onto her back once more. Rey nodded in agreement and he moved to hover over her. 

“Ready?” He asked, pressing his lips to her forehead. 

“Yeah.” She was tense under him, eager but anxious. Ben kissed his way across her neck and collarbone, then took himself in hand. He pushed the head of his cock through her folds, gathering wetness and giving her a moment to prepare. 

“So wet for me,” he mumbled, and her ankles hooked around his calves. 

Settling against her entrance, he eased into her with a gentle push, keeping the pressure on even as she dug her fingernails into his shoulders. He didn’t stop until their hips were flush and he was panting with the effort of  _ not _ fucking her. 

Rey gasped and whimpered under him, shifting her hips as she adjusted to his size. She hadn’t been wrong when she called him big. Ben knew that, so he gave her as much time as she needed, even if the tight, wet heat of her beckoned him otherwise. 

Eventually her pained expression began to lessen, and the slight adjustments of her hips became rhythmic pushes against his body, as if she could somehow seat him deeper. She pawed at his abdomen needily, then dragged her fingers over his biceps to pull him in closer. 

“ _ Ben _ .” She pleaded, nails raking over his back, heels digging into his calves. 

Understanding, he huffed and began to thrust, gentle, hardly pulling out on the egress. He leaned over her, pressing their foreheads together, savoring the tender moment before things got rougher. 

“Feels good?” He panted. 

“Uh-huh.” She nodded, mouth parted to make way for breathy moans. 

Her cunt twitched as he fucked into her and he growled, “Want more?”

She nodded her head furiously, “Yeah.” 

Exhaling in an attempt to maintain some precious control over his body, Ben wound his arms around Rey’s middle and hunched over her. Face tucked into the crook of her shoulder, her legs now splayed around his hips, Ben set a frantic pace. 

He snapped his hips fast and brutal, savoring each wet  _ smack _ of his balls slapping her ass as he fucked into her. Under him Rey squealed and bit into the meat of his shoulder. The pain was exquisite and he fucked her harder for it. 

“Ben Ben Ben Ben Ben,” she keened his name, “Feels good, feels so good.” 

“You’re so good for me, Rey.” He panted into her sweat dampened flesh, “Such a— ah— such a good girl for me.” 

And she was. She was pristinely tight and wet and each time he pulled out it was only to try to bury his cock further on the next thrust. He arched his back, working himself deeper much to Rey’s surprise and delight. He felt her legs kick behind him and he half smiled into her breast, delivering another volley of brutal thrusts. 

“Wanna…” He panted, face scrunched in pleasure, “Wanna see your tits.” 

Rey giggled, but it was quickly cut off by another jarring thrust of his hips. 

He could feel himself nearing his end, and if the clench of Rey’s cunt around his cock was any indication, she was close too. Ben leveraged himself up, cock slipping free, much to his disdain. Rey mewled in complaint as he repositioned himself on his knees, hiking her right leg over his shoulder. 

Ben puffed his cheeks and pushed back into the sloppy mess of her pussy, fingers digging into the meat of thigh as he began to work his hips against hers with near brutal thrusts. Under him Rey squealed and clawed at the blanket, sliding across the floor with the force of their fucking. 

Her pretty little tits bounced on her chest, and Ben hummed with delight at the sight of them. Her cunt squelched between them and he felt his cock twitch, his body flamming with rising orgasm. He dropped her leg and leaned over her, one hand sliding down to play with her clit as he worked steadily towards his finish. 

Under him Rey hiccuped and writhed, her body beginning to quiver with impending climax. 

“I’m gonna come.” He rasped, and Rey responded by locking her ankles at the small of his back. 

“ _ Please _ .” 

Then it happened all at once, Rey’s entire person seemed spasm, and her head tilted back in a silent wail. Over her Ben went still, his cock swelling and twitching and spilling into the warm, constricting confines of her body. He saw white and felt warm from his fingers to his toes. 

“Rey.” He gasped her name, and then he buckled, smothering her with his heft. 

She rolled her hips against his own a few more desperate times, working through the aftershocks, then she fell still. Calm and silent beneath him. 

Slowly coming back to his senses, Ben rolled them so that Rey was splayed across his sweaty chest. She curled into his neck, nuzzling there, arm slung across him limply, cum dripping onto his thigh. 

“That was…” He didn’t know what it was, besides really kriffing good. 

Rey just nodded her head, breath coming shallow and even, half asleep. Ben blinked at her and smiled. The image might have been cute if he hadn’t been intimately aware of it’s context. Maybe it still was cute. 

He pulled the blanket in around them, deciding it was okay to rest for a moment. Rey was probably in desperate need of a nap after what they had just done. It made him quietly giddy that he had worn her out so thoroughly. 

Ben kissed her hair and stroked his fingertips along the curve of her spine, a decidedly intimate gesture. He didn’t care. 

Ben shut his eyes and let his fucked out body relax. Grateful that his comlink, where it had been thrown to, remained blissfully silent. 

Into his neck Rey breathed, “I guess you are  _ a little _ charming.” 

Ben hummed in agreement and tried to forget he would have to leave her behind. 

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m here.” He stumbled for words, “I promise I’m here. Please, look at me, tell me what’s going on.”
> 
> She was terrified, trembling with fear, exuding anxiety so thick he could taste it in the air. Something was very different. And very wrong. When she raised her swollen eyes to meet his gaze a bone chilling shudder ran up his spine. Her eyes were glassy, her skin sallow, the circles beneath her eyes ugly like bruises. Worst of all, her face was near skeletal. 
> 
> Lips trembling, she croaked, “I don’t want to die. I can’t hold anything down. But I don’t want to die, Ben.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note the tags. Unplanned pregnancy has been tagged since the beginning. 
> 
> Shout out to meg (@meg_sailorscout) for glancing this over for me.

They napped the day away, waking only for rounds of blissful sex before slipping back into dreamy reverie. 

Ben had her on her side, her back again, her hands and knees, she even sat astride him once she gained enough confidence. Eventually she managed to get her mouth on him like he’d forbade, he didn’t last long. She giggled and swallowed him down despite what must have been a bitter taste. 

All of this was permeated by the faint but numinous presence of the Force, like somehow this tryst was orchestrated, fated to transpire. Ben didn’t have much time to mull it over though, not with Rey naked and needy under him, over him, her hands all over his body. Hot and wanting. The world outside of her AT-AT didn’t exist. It was just them in this nebulous moment, minds fogged by arousal and sex. 

When they were too fucked out to carry on, they surrendered to sleep once more. Or, Rey did. Ben, despite the bone deep exhaustion that logically followed such exertions, couldn’t calm his mind enough to rest. Rey was curled cutely into his side, snoring softly, her hair having long since fallen from its buns. He couldn’t look away, guilt twisting in his gut. 

She looked less like a girl now, more like a woman. He wondered if that had been his doing, if he had somehow changed her irrevocably in the course of a few heated hours. 

Soon his com would bark to life with his father’s husky voice and he would be called to leave Jakku, to return home to Chandrila where the world was green and his lifestyle decadent. His fingers roamed lazily over her shoulders and she stirred, mumbling in her sleep and snuggling closer. 

_ Fuck _ . He hardly knew her, but he couldn’t just leave her here. 

Even if this thing between them was just a one-off, he could still set her up somewhere. He knew an innkeep on Takodana who would take her in, give her a job so she could build a life for herself away from the hellscape that was Jakku. 

Secretly, he hoped she would choose to stay with him. 

He kissed her hair. An action more intimate than any he’d ever taken with a previous lover, and shut his eyes. Basking in the afterglow, Ben was content in a way he hadn’t realized he was missing. 

Then his com crackled to life, Han’s voice coming rough through the static, “Alright, kid. Just about wrapped up. Wherever you went off to, it’s time to come back.” 

Rey came awake in his arms with a dissatisfied noise, blinking the sleep from her eyes. The sound she made when she stretched made him want to kiss her again. Instead, he ran to the corner his vest had been thrown into, fumbling for his comlink. 

“Coming.” He chimed into the receiver, “Might be a hot second though, seems I wandered further than I meant to.” His eyes drifted back to Rey, who was bent over, stark naked, gathering her clothes. Ass on full display. Other things, too. 

He swallowed hard, his cock making a valiant effort to rise up again, but ultimately it couldn’t. The spell was broken, it was time to move on. 

“Just hurry,” the com crackled, “Want to get off of this backwater ASAP.” 

“Okay.” Ben replied, then dropped the mechanism back into his pocket.

He dressed quickly, and when he was done he turned to find Rey fully clothed, sitting with her legs crossed on the blanket. She had forgone her body scarf, it was folded neatly in her lap. She worried at the gauzy material with her fingers. 

“So… you’re leaving? Will the Force even let you?” Her honey eyes were wide, but steeled. 

“I don’t know, but we might not have to find out.” Rey quirked an eyebrow as Ben extended his hand between them, offering to help her to her feet, “Come with me, Rey. No strings attached I promise, you don’t have to stick with me if you don’t want. But let me get you out of this backwater.” 

She was too intelligent to waste away in a place like this. Too fiery. Too Beautiful. 

Her face fell slightly, confusion taking hold and darkening her expression. Conflicted, her gaze was drawn to the wall of tallies, innumerable little scratches on the durasteel. Before she said anything Ben knew what her answer was going to be. Something about that wall, what those tallies represented, was going to keep her here. 

“I… I can’t, Ben.” She worried the scarf more insistently, eyes trained on her lap, “I’m waiting for someone, if I leave and they come for me…” 

Ben blinked in quiet disbelief. Each tally must have been a day. A day spent alone, scavenging the derelict ruins of fallen star destroyers. A day spent risking assault by other wastelanders and gangrene in her untreated wounds. Sun burning her skin. Sand rubbing her bloody raw. All because she was waiting. 

“Rey, look how many marks you’ve made.” He knew he was pushing into dangerous, personal territory, but he had to try and speak some sense to her, “Do you really think they’re coming back for you? After all this time?” 

Perhaps it was a cruel thing to say. From the way her face crumpled into disdain, a thin veil to mask obvious hurt, Ben knew it was harsh. But she needed to hear it. She needed to see the truth and come to terms with it. She needed to choose him. Not because he had become attached, but because to remain on Jakku was to finalize her death sentence. Scavengers weren’t known for their longevity. 

Shaking her head she hissed through her teeth, “ _ Get out _ .”

“Rey—

“I said get out!” She leapt to her feet and the whole AT-AT creaked with the ripples of her outrage vibrating through the Force. 

She was powerful. 

Ben raised his hands submissively, backing away. But he didn’t give up. Pleading, he bid her to reconsider, “Rey, please, you have to think about it logically—

“Out!” Her plant and tools were sent careening from their homes, clanging around the enclosed space. Ben ducked and backed into the hatch, fumbling with it before tripping out into the dunes. 

The sun was setting, he would have to rush to make it back to Niima before darkness befell the wastes. In the distance he could see the jutting bodies of fallen starships, they cast long, black shadows. Looking back over his shoulder, he saw Rey, her countenance austere once more. Her eyes were as exacting as the moment they’d met. 

In her hand she clutched her bo staff, knuckles white around it. Ben winced, and staggered forward, convinced she was going to strike him. She only tossed it. It landed with a puff of dust at his feet. 

“Take it. I can make another easily, and you’ll need it to help you on the sand. You don’t want to be caught in the desert after sundown.” There was a pregnant pause between them. Ben uncertain of the gesture, considering how volatile she had been just moments before. 

Rey seemed to sense this, and she swallowed hard, stepping out to join him in the waning light. She tapped the staff with her bare toe, knocking it closer. “Take it. I’m sorry I yelled, I just… I can’t leave, Ben. I want to but I can’t.” 

Her doe eyes were wide and woeful.  _ She wanted to _ . That was something at least, a sentiment he could hold on to. And her staff, he considered it for a moment before bending down and taking it in hand. It was light but sturdy. 

“Just… I just want you to have it.” She said, then added in rushed addendum, “To help you get to Niima! Of course.” 

She was flush to her hairline, and her eyes were wet. 

“Okay.” Ben agreed, because he didn’t want to draw out this farewell any longer. It was oddly painful, they had only just met. The sex had been phenominal, but all he knew was her name and what her pussy tasted like. He might’ve laughed if he weren’t choking back emotion. 

“I’ll come back some day,” he offered, hand combing through his hair, “Check in on you, maybe by then you’ll change your mind.” 

Rey smiled, and he saw her lip tremble, “Maybe.” 

She didn’t believe him. She was right not to, it was a stupid thing to say. Ben Solo was a rogue, he didn’t keep tabs on single day conquests in arid backwaters. It wasn’t his way. It wasn’t supposed to be. Maybe. 

“Bye, kid,” He waved and turned away, setting the end of the staff to the dust. 

“Bye, Ben.” Her voice sounded strained. But he dared not look back. If he did, and there were tears trailing that beautiful face, he never would have left Jakku. 

Passing out of the range the Force had held them at, he felt cold. There was no violent burst of motion dragging them back together. There was nothing at all. It was the sex then, for whatever reason. The momentary bond was no more. 

By the time he reached Niima any attempt at an ordinary mein had fled him. He was openly despondent, moping uselessly about the  _ Falcon  _ as Han and Chewie prepared for takeoff. 

“You good, kid?” Han asked, as they finished bringing in some rusted cases of cargo. His eyes lingered warily on the bo staff still clutched tight in Ben’s hands. 

Ben shook his head, pursing his mouth. He felt sick. “No.” 

Han stepped aside as Chewie dragged in the final case, he looked unsure of himself. He had never been particularly adept at navigating emotions, that had always been Leia’s strong suit. 

“Don’t worry about it dad,” Ben brushed him off, “I just met a girl is all, I asked her to tag along and she said no.”

A weight seemed to lift from Han’s shoulders and he clapped his son on the back, “Must’ve been a looker to have you hooked in a day. It’s the way women are son, try not to take it so personally.” 

Ben pursed his lips and nodded, following his father into the belly of the  _ Falcon _ as the ramp sealed behind them. 

Han was right, and he’d get over it soon enough. When they returned to Chandrila he’d prowl the underbelly of Hanna City, find a bar with some dancers, take one home and let her make him forget the skinny girl from Jakku. 

The thought made his stomach turn and he excused himself to rest as they jerked into the air. 

Feeling the incline as the ship began to ascend, Ben wondered if Rey was watching from the ground. He wondered if she felt ill, too, seeing the freighter streak bright across the night sky, leaving her behind. 

Ben shut his eyes, pressing his knuckles into his temples, and tried to forget. 

**Three months later**

He hadn’t been the same since Jakku. He knew he hadn’t, and with each passing day he felt himself slipping further into the depths of something he couldn’t place. It wasn’t a  _ funk _ as Han had so helpfully suggested, or a depression as his mother had worried. This was a tear in his soul, and slowly, ever slowly, it was bleeding him dry. His thoughts were jumbled and his body weak. The family doctor couldn’t name a condition beyond ‘generalized apathy’. He gave Ben little pink capsules to take with water at night, but they did nothing. 

His work became sloppy, his charm lost in the chaos of his tired mind. Easy smiles gave way to heavy shoulders and tired, sunken eyes. Han wasn’t going to allow him to join in on the next mission, something that hadn’t occurred since Ben was a teenager. Then it had been a punishment for joyriding a stolen speeder. Now it was out of genuine concern for his health. 

Ben wanted to argue, but how could he? His father was right, he would only serve as a liability in his current diminished state. His endurance was shit, his aim was off, and his finesse was practically non-existent. 

He hated it, and he could think of no other catalyst than Rey. Rey who didn’t want to leave Jakku. Not knowing what to make of it, he took his useless pink pills and tried to live his life. 

Then came the night of the dream. He felt ill all evening, nursing a headache and a queasy stomach. Skipping dinner he retreated to his bedroom early, wanting nothing more than to bury himself in blankets and sleep away whatever sort of ailment this was. 

Sleep came easily enough, but following on its heels was a dream. A beautiful, terrible dream, one that echoed with such corporeality he questioned the surreal nature of it. Ben questioned whether or not he was actually on Jakku. He could taste the grit in the air, see mirage shimmering off the sands even though the sun had not yet risen. 

The sands shifted beneath his feet, but he found them easier to navigate bare-footed than with his boots. It was cold, dawn just beginning to tinge the distant horizon orange. He could see Rey’s AT-AT, unchanged in the months since his departure, and all around him he could hear a voice.  _ Her  _ voice. 

It was muffled, strained and unclear, as if she were speaking through water. With the sounds came pulses of emotions, as muted as her words, but still he felt them. Anguish, anxiety, but mostly fear. As he stepped over the sand, drawing nearer to the ramshackle AT-AT, everything became clearer, more pristine. The words became whimpers in the dark, and the fear a wretched thing that cut him to the bone. A bitter taste filled his mouth as he felt the intensity of the emotion. She was  _ terrified _ .

Ben broke into a sprint, eyes locked on the sealed belly of her home. All around him he heard her crying softly, afraid, alone. Whatever was making her feel that way, whatever had thrust her into such despair, he would decimate. 

When he reached the hatch he banged his fists roughly against it, “Rey?” 

The sound of his voice was odd in his ears, resonant, a reminder that this was just a dream.  _ Just a dream _ . The hatch gave way on its own, leading into the blackness of the AT-AT. The lights Rey’s hands had deftly installed did not so much as flicker. The crying was focused now, emanating from a singular source obscured in the black. 

So close, yet so far, he could hear her breathing his name between soft sobs. 

“Ben,” she hiccupped, “Please. I’m sorry, Ben.  _ Please. _ ” All around him the Force vibrated with her fear, it was all consuming, it made him want to tear his hair out. Ben hated how afraid she was, real or no, Rey didn’t deserve to feel this sort of pain. She had already lived through too much. He needed to get to her, he needed to banish this evil beyond whatever hell it had emerged from so that she wouldn’t hurt any longer. Would never cry again. 

“I’m here.” He called into the blackness, carefully stepping forward. Behind him the hatch shrieked shut in a squeal of metal scraping metal, choking out what little light he’d had to move by. “Rey, sweetheart, keep talking. I’m here.” 

She didn’t speak again, but she continued to let out pitiful, shaking sobs which he followed through the dark. The shadows seemed to stretch on endlessly, far past the width of her AT-AT. 

“I’m coming,” He promised, swallowing hard. He extended a hand into the black to preempt any collisions, “I promise I’m coming, Rey.”

_ I love you _ . The thought came unbidden, and he pushed it back, deeming it inappropriate for the moment. He hardly knew her, they’d fucked a few times over the course of a single day. Yet here she was, haunting his dreams. Crying out for him from the blackest abyss. He remembered what her lips had felt like under his, he wanted to feel them again. 

Then, with a flash like a lightspeed warp, he was jerked forward into a patch of illuminated space. The far wall of the AT-AT, the one which Rey had marked with endless tallies. Endless days, isolated and empty, waiting for something that would never come. The marks seemed to stand out, each one glowing with soft crimson light. Like blood, little cuts in the fabric of her self-made home. Each day a wound. 

Below them, curled up on the floor, was Rey. Her face was buried in her knees, her little shoulders shaking as she cried. Her hair was free of its buns, her clothing was filthy. Something was off about her physicality, but Ben didn’t take time to observe, not when she so obviously needed him. 

Real or no, it didn’t matter. He wanted to take her into his arms and kiss her until she smiled again. 

“Rey.” His hits his knees on the floor in front of her, large hands gently cupping her shoulders, “Rey, baby, I’m here. Please look at me.” 

“You aren’t.” She sniffled, voice muffled into her legs, “You’re just a vision, you’re a— a memory.” How many nights had she spent remembering? How many nights had she cried herself to sleep, aching and alone, to think that he was just a memory? Ben wanted to scream. She didn’t deserve this, whatever it was. 

The Force seemed to warp around them, and Ben realized that something was  _ very _ different, something that made his stomach turn and his brow knit. The fabric of the dream was positively humming with it. 

“I’m here.” He stumbled for words, “I promise I’m here. Please, look at me, tell me what’s going on.” 

She was terrified, trembling with fear, exuding anxiety so thick he could taste it in the air. Something was very different. And  _ very _ wrong. When she raised her swollen eyes to meet his gaze a bone chilling shudder ran up his spine. Her eyes were glassy, her skin sallow, the circles beneath her eyes ugly like bruises. Worst of all, her face was near skeletal. 

Lips trembling, she croaked, “I don’t want to die. I can’t hold anything down. But I don’t want to die, Ben.” 

Another volley of sobs overtook her, desperate, incoherent. She bowed her head and wept. 

And everything fell into place. Each piece of the puzzle fitting snug into its home as a greater picture made itself known. The Force pulsed and shuddered around him not just with Rey’s fear, and his agonizing worry, but the glimmer of a new, budding life.  _ Can’t hold anything down _ . The final clue. His sickness had been only a faint echo of hers across their remaining bond. 

Rey was pregnant. 

Head spinning, Ben dropped his hands to steady himself on the grated floor. That would be the logical conclusion of the Force tethering them for sex. How he hadn’t made that connection on his own… and Rey.  _ Fuck _ . 

“I don’t want to die.” She had uncurled into a more open, desperate position, hands cupping the still flat expanse of her abdomen over her clothes. “ _ Please, Ben _ .” 

“Die…?” Of course. Scavengers were not known for their longevity, he had observed. How many had he met past the age of thirty? He could count those on his fingers. But  _ women _ past thirty? Not one. 

Pregnancy was a death sentence on a planet like Jakku. If the inability to scavenge resources didn’t starve a mother to death, childbirth would most certainly leave her in shambles. Bleeding, open to infection. And all of that with an infant to nurse and protect, if the baby survived at all. 

“Please.” She warbled, tears streaking over her cheeks. She crawled towards him, reaching out, hand quivering in the air between them, “Please, Ben. I’m so scared.”

She was so young. He had forgotten how young she was. Too young to be a mother, maybe. But it was too late for that. He took her hand and pulled her to his chest, crushing her there. Despite the dream that rippled around them, she felt real and warm in his arms. And between them, small and new, there was light. 

“I’m coming.” He breathed in her scent, it was fetid, like she was wasting away. Her hair tickled his cheek, “I promise I won’t leave you there, Rey.  _ I’m coming _ .” 

Ben was crying, too. Silently. Because everything was changing all at once. He was a father, tentatively, and his woman was in danger. She needed him. When had anyone ever  _ needed _ him? 

He held her close as she sobbed deep, heaving sobs. The sobs of a frightened girl all alone in the galaxy, and he knew this was real. A dream, but a connecting one. Somewhere, countless parsecs away, Rey lay shivering alone in the dark. Pregnant, ill, and afraid. Faced with her own mortality, her life snuffed out too soon. 

All his doing. 

When the dream began to waver around them. The blushing kiss of dawn tugging him away from his scavenger, he took her chin between his thumb and forefinger, meeting her wide, frightened eyes. 

“I’m coming, Rey.” He repeated, and he thought  _ I love you _ , but he kept those words to himself. They’d figure that part out later. 

Then he kissed her. She tasted acrid, like she had been vomiting. He didn’t care, there was still sweetness in the way she melted into him, in the way the little light fluttered between them. 

As his heavy lids peeled open to meet his bedroom, and the dream faded from his mind, a single phrase echoed behind his eyes, urgent.  _ Hurry, Ben. Hurry _ . 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may notice that the chapter count is now 3! I'm just too long winded lmao. 
> 
> Next chapter will close out with some more smut and a nice HEA, just had to have this angsty middle installment first <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _She was far too light, bony even. He feared what he would find once he brought her back into the light, but still savored the feel of her safe in his arms._
> 
> _“I’m here,” he whispered, stumbling blindly back towards the door. His mouth found her hair, it was greasy, rank as everything else in the AT-AT. He didn’t care. “Rey, can you hear me? I’m here. You’re going to be okay, kid. I promise. I’m so sorry.”  
> _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...so, I upped the chapter count again. I'm too long winded for my own good, further explanation in the end note lol. Enjoy! More angst with some softness, the second round of smut will come next chapter.

Ultimately it was Leia who facilitated Ben’s departure from Chandrila. Han had been stubborn, initially refusing to listen to his son’s frantic rambling. To him it was just another sign of his boy’s slow wasting, it frightened him. 

But Leia, wise, stoic Leia, she felt into the very Force that had connected Ben to his Rey and sensed a great disturbance there. A great wrong, a growing tear in the tapestry that needed to be mended, posthaste. There was no time to explain, and she didn’t expect him to. Not then. Later, once he had rushed headlong into whatever turmoil awaited him and emerged victorious and unscathed. Because that was what Solo men did. And Ben was a Solo through-and-through, even tortured as he had become. 

At her insistence Han forfeited the  _ Falcon _ , insisting that he accompany his son to keep his beloved craft out of harm’s way. It was a thinly veiled attempt to disguise his concern. He cared, he feared for Ben’s sanity and health and didn’t want him to venture to a backwater like Jakku all on his own. 

It was gesture more affectionate than Ben was accustomed to. But at present he was too far gone in his animal need. Single minded in his desperation. He would thank his father once Rey was safe in his arms, on the  _ Falcon _ . Alive and well and—

And… he didn’t know. The uncertainty of it all was driving him mad. His head throbbed and his stomach turned and he feared in his bones that this illness was not his own. He just needed to get to her. Nothing beyond that mattered. He would cross over that bridge when he came to it. But for now Ben  _ needed _ to get to Rey. 

He couldn’t bear the thought of her alone and afraid, suffering the blistering days and frigid nights of Jakku.  _ Pregnant.  _

_ Shit _ , she was pregnant. He hadn’t told his parents yet. Or anyone, for that matter. For now it was between he and Rey, and the Force, in a way. And fuck if it didn’t terrify him. The entire flight to Jakku he was practically wringing his hands over it. Sick with worry for Rey, petrified at the prospect of a baby and fatherhood, and what it meant for him. 

Most of all he feared he’d arrive too late. That he’d find Rey cold and sightless, collapsed on the grated floor of her AT-AT. Emaciated and haloed in a pool of her own vomit. Little light snuffed out. 

The image was too much, too horrifying to even consider and yet he could not rid himself of it. Each time he blinked it would flash there for him to behold, reminding him what was at stake. 

When they reached Jakku he shouldered the bo-staff Rey had gifted him as a quiet favor. Wrapping a scarf over his face he prepared to brave the dunes alone. This was his mission, his responsibility. He was practically shaking with emotion, vibrating with his anxiety. 

Get to Rey. 

He just needed to get to Rey. 

Han objected. 

“I’ll be damned if I let you go out there alone, kid. It’s past midnight, the desert is cold and dangerous. If I come back without you I’m a dead man.” He holstered his blaster at his hip, weathered face lined and resolute. 

“The Force called out to  _ me _ ,” Ben insisted. 

“Did it say I couldn’t come?” Han countered, “Whatever you’re trying to hide from me, I’m gonna find out as soon as your bring that girl on board, kid.” 

Ben’s eyes narrowed as he considered his father. It seemed that there would be no dissuading the older man. And he was right, as soon as Rey was aboard the  _ Falcon  _ it would be blatant that something was very, very wrong. 

He said nothing, but didn’t attempt to obstruct his father as he followed down the ramp and into the frigid Jakku night. The sand held no warmth, and the cloudless sky siphoned off what little radiant heat might have remained in the air. 

The AT-AT was within sight, and Ben could feel Rey’s presence in the Force like a guttering flame, threatening to extinguish with each passing moment. He wanted to shout, to scream, to tear his hair from his scalp and bare his teeth at whatever malignant thing was causing her such immense pain. But he could not, because there was no source save himself, who had left her here alone and pregnant to begin with. 

Ben held out his hand, indicating for Han to stop as they crested a dune made silver by moonlight. The moon was bright, and even by cover of midnight they would see for miles in any direction. Han’s knowing gaze never wavered from the AT-AT. 

“Something you have to tell me before we go in there, kid?” He probed with his best attempt at fatherly cadence. He’d never been very good at it. 

Still, better to explain now than wait until he was preoccupied with Rey. Once Ben had her safe in his arms he had no intentions of leaving her side until they reached a med unit on Chandrila. She could take some of his life if need be, he didn’t need all of it, and right now she needed twice as much. 

“I met her when you were doing business on Jakku,” Ben explained, keeping his voice measured, neutral. “Some  _ Force-ish _ stuff happened. She’s pregnant, something’s wrong. She reached out to me in a dream. I have to help her. I can’t not help her,  _ she’s so afraid. _ ” 

He didn’t realize that he had begun to shake until Han laid a steadying hand on his shoulder, “Then let’s get her, kid. Everything else can wait.” 

Ben nodded in agreement and angled his body to slide down the sand dune, bo staff angled to keep himself steady. Han followed close behind, clumsily, but he managed not to fall. 

The belly of the fallen behemoth was sealed shut, but Ben was undaunted. In a rare blazé display of his ability he found the ramshackle locking mechanism on the other side and destroyed it. In a puff of sparks Rey’s handiwork was blown to smithereens and the hatch swung open heavily, nearly striking Han. 

Ignoring his father’s cursing, Ben leapt over the rounded threshold, landing with a clatter on the durasteel. His gaze wandered the darkened AT-AT, heart pounding in his chest. In the air, all around him the Force  _ hummed _ with the fading essence of her. But he couldn’t see her. 

“Rey!” He called out, and the rank scent of sweat and vomit met his nostrils, elevating his panic. 

Stumbling, feet caught up in a familiar, threadbare blanket, he half sobbed her name. Wide eyes searching, finding nothing. “Rey!” 

He had never left the transport portion of the AT-AT on his previous visit, but there had to be a passage to the head of the fallen titan. The place from which it had once been piloted. Glancing right and left, orienting himself in the darkness, he clambered over her hammock and personal effects. Hands groping through the black until he found the sideways handle of a narrow door. It would be an awkward fit, crawling through sideways, but feeling out the width he knew he could make it work. 

Behind him Han had finally caught up, “What’s going on, Ben?” 

“She’s in the cockpit.” He half snarled, needlessly aggressive but also half mad in his desperation, “Just wait there, I’ll be back.” 

And with that he leveraged himself into the darkness. Rey’s faint light grew nearer as he crawled into blackest-blackness. And beneath it, as if she were sheltering it with her own presence, was something smaller, even more delicate. 

It only spurred him to grit his teeth and move faster, biting through the sharp sensation of rusted steel tearing at his exposed skin. 

“Rey?” He called into the dark, and though he received no response he could make out faint, raspy breathing. “Hold on, sweetheart. I’m here.” 

With a  _ thunk _ he tumbled out of the narrow, sideways corridor and onto what had once been a control panel at the back of the cockpit. In a jumble of long limbs he hissed, buttons and switches pressing uncomfortably into his flesh. 

Ben could see nothing, but that didn’t matter when he could  _ feel _ Rey so acutely. She did not seem so faded now, so close to him. The air was rancid, and he heard her hiccup. 

He found her easily, collapsed longways across a dilapidated pilot’s chair. He stepped into something wet that stuck to his boot, likely a pool of vomit if the smell was any indication. 

“Rey.” His hands found her biceps, Her skin was clammy and cold, covered in a fine sheen of sweat. Any relief he had felt at finding her was washed away by that touch. Shuddering, he lifted her into his arms. 

She was far too light, bony even. He feared what he would find once he brought her back into the light, but still savored the feel of her safe in his arms. 

“I’m here,” he whispered, stumbling blindly back towards the door. His mouth found her hair, it was greasy, rank as everything else in the AT-AT. He didn’t care. “Rey, can you hear me? I’m here. You’re going to be okay, kid. I promise. I’m so sorry.” 

He felt like a lost child, he wanted to cry. But Rey needed him to be a man. Her lover. A maybe-father. So he contained all of that wayward emotion and pressed her through the doorway, carefully pushing her through ahead of him. 

Through all of it she gave no indication that she was awake, not a hint at consciousness despite all the excitement. 

“Dad!” Ben called out. “We’re coming through! Get ready to catch her on the other side.”

“Ready.” Han assured him. 

“If you drop her I swear—

“I’m not going to  _ drop _ a pregnant woman, Ben. Have a little faith in your old man.” 

Ben sniffed, hands carefully easing Rey forward. He could see the light emanating from the hatch and Han’s body silhouetted in the doorway. Pressing Rey forward as Han simultaneously took on all of her deadweight, they were soon both free of the corridor. 

He quickly took Rey back from his father, affronted on an instinctual level by their contact. He knew it was stupid, but his logical brain was only functioning at half capacity. Everything else was deeper, more primal. An instinctive imperative dictated by the Force itself. The same Force that had brought them to this point. 

Even in the dim light of the AT-AT the extent of her deterioration was obvious. Han’s brow was furrowed and his dark eyes swam with worry. 

“She’s not looking too hot. We’d better get moving, kid.” 

He was right. Her lips were pale and chapped to bleeding. Her cheeks hollowed. Her eyes sunken and the circles beneath them dark as bruises. Her breath came with concerning speed, shallow in her chest. 

Ben nodded in agreement and they set out into the sands. Ben clutched her near, trying to guard her against the frigid night air with the heat of his own body. 

He had hoped that once they found her it would only be a matter of getting her back to Chandrila, that her survival would be a sure thing in the hands of modern medical science. Suddenly he wasn’t so certain. 

He kissed her hair again. He wanted to cry. 

Han led the way back to the  _ Falcon _ , and once they were safely aboard he maintained that level of calming authority. 

“Take her to my quarters, get her set up on the bed in there. See if she has any wounds you can tend to immediately with a med kit.” His expression was stern but caring, “Don’t leave her side. I’ll get us back to Chandrila.” 

Throat tight, Ben nodded, fear sinking in deep, branding itself in his bones as Rey sniffed in his arms. She stirred, the first sign of life beyond her labored breathing. He sucked in a sharp breath, not daring to hope that she was waking. 

He carried her down the familiar, aging hallways of what was akin to his childhood home. Wishing he could show her down each corridor and into each alcove, because this was a place he loved, and he was possessed by the urge to share it. But her sallow lids remained tightly shut, blue-green capillaries running in branches beneath pale skin, carrying within them some unknown pathogen which threatened to take her from him entirely. 

Passing through the doors of the captain’s quarters he laid out gingerly on the bed. Propping her slightly on the pillows. Swallowing, he took a closer look at her. Carefully examining each finger and limb, tracing along the artery in her neck, pushing clothing aside as much as he could while sparing her modesty. 

There were no outward wounds to be found, no abrasions or scrapes, not even from her slide through the sideways hall in the AT-AT. Nothing he could treat with a med-kit. There was nothing Ben Solo could do for her but stay by her side, hold her hand. Whispering soft platitudes he tried not to let his fear show, lest she sense it in the Force. But he was achingly afraid, terrified at the prospect of the unknown. Helpless. 

He sat beside her on the edge of the bed, bowing his head into his hands. 

If—  _ when _ — she woke up, he had no idea how she might react. She hadn’t been in any position to give consent when he plucked her from her home, but in doing so he had likely saved her life. 

Or extended it. 

The truth was that he hardly knew her. She was carrying his child and was inexplicably bound to him by the Force, but he knew nothing of Rey as a person. Nothing beyond some vague, traumatic past, and her latent connection to the Force. 

Yet, as he felt the  _ Millennium Falcon  _ jerk into hyperspace, he took one of her pale, skeletal hands in his own. It was small, so fragile. His heart ached at how he dwarfed her. 

_ Maybe this is love. _ He thought.  _ Or the beginning of it _ . 

And because this tenuous thing was so new, so fragile.

Because between them there still lingered that little promise of new life. 

Ben Solo wept. 

*

Rey made it to Chandrila where she was taken to the Organa-Solo manse which was situated on a lake within sight of the glittering spires of Hanna City. Within Leia had converted a spare bedroom into an on site medical facility. Complete with a physician. 

Doctor Kalonia was a kindly woman and brilliant practitioner. A friend of his mother from her time in the Rebellion. 

Ben found all of it jarring until Han explained that he had radioed ahead and tipped off Leia as to the severity of the situation. Naturally, the senator wanted to keep any knowledge of a potential pregnancy  _ within _ the family until the nature of it was determined. 

When Ben walked through the bay doors, entering the simple Alderaanian trappings of the vestibule, Leia had taken one look at Rey’s prone form in his arms and went pale. 

She understood then that it was more than a pregnancy. 

Rey was taken from him, and in his half-bereaved stupefaction he hardly fought it. He hit his knees and she was peeled away from him. It felt like losing a limb, but he couldn’t articulate that pain aloud. 

Ben wanted to follow after Rey, but instead his father ushered him upstairs to his rooms to bathe and change into fresh clothing. 

“They won’t let you in right now, anyways. They’re looking her over, trying to figure out what’s wrong. You’d just be in the way.” 

Ben nodded numbly and allowed himself to be led to his childhood bedroom. 

Everything was much the same as when he had last stayed a night. The space an odd conglomerate of boy and manhood. A chest of child’s toys tucked into a corner. A short dresser stuffed with boys clothes his mother refused to give away. Contrasted with a calligraphy set from his adolescence on his desk, and a blaster cleaning kit sat neatly on his bedside table. 

The majority of his childhood trappings were tucked away in his closet or beneath his bed. And with mechanical movements he opened his armoire to a small collection of clothing kept on the property for those nights when he wanted to escape the bustle of the city. 

He kicked off his shoes, one still stained with vomit, and made for the fresher. Normally the water pounding against his shoulders would have relaxed him, the adjustable pressure serving to massage out the knots of a hard-worked mission. But on this night the heat only served to overstimulate him, the steam to stifle his breath. Ben washed quickly and roughly, scrubbing his skin ruddy and raw and then some. 

Even with soap and shampoo, conditioner and the fancy scented oils his mother insisted her keep, he could not rid his nostrils of the rancid odor of that AT-AT. The aroma of Rey’s suffering; vomit and sweat and fear. 

With each inhale he felt a sharp pang of guilt. This was his fault. She was so young and he had caved so easily. Sleeping with her. Finishing inside of her. Allowing her to remain on Jakku despite the utter destitution. He could think of a hundred points of intervention, and he had seized on none of them. Not until it was nearly too late. 

When he stepped out of the fresher in a billow of steam, dark hair pasted to the back of his neck, fresh clothes sticking to his body in the damp, he found his mother sitting at the foot of his bed. Her expression was neutral. Eyes filled with the sort of reservation she normally spared for the senate floor. They must have finished up Rey’s initial examination. 

“Ben.” She said, tight lipped. “Have a seat.” 

He sat despite his reservations, because no one denied senator Leia Organa-Solo when she issued a command. The mattress sank and creaked beneath his weight, and he was grateful that he sat beside her and not in front of her. It would spare him from her exacting gaze. 

“The girl is pregnant—

“Rey.” He cut her off, surprising himself, “Her name is Rey.”

Leia cleared her throat shifting her hands in her lap. “Right. Rey is pregnant. I assume you are the father?” 

Ben nodded silently. 

“I need you to be forthright with me, Ben. You’re much older than her. The circumstances your father described to me are suspicious at best. I know the Force is at play, somehow, but none of this looks good. For you or for her.” It was just like his mother to be thinking ahead, already preempting a media firestorm in her own mind. She was understanding, she was a good mother. Leia deserved the truth. 

So Ben started from the beginning. The secretive detour to Jakku. The pull he had felt in the marketplace. Rey in all her spitfire beauty and the bond that had bound them. He brushed over the sex, only implying that it had occured, but making it abundantly clear that the Force had somehow been involved with that as well. He told her of Rey’s hesitance to leave, chalking it up to nerves or fear of the unknown. The wall of tallies felt too intimate a detail to share. 

When he came to the months of silence and sickness he had to pause for a moment. Taking a steadying breath, he composed himself. He knew now that it had been only an echo of the hell Rey was living, reflected onto him by the Force. He was a fool for not realizing. Then came the dream, and the AT-AT, and his composure fractured like shattered glass.

Leia rubbed his back with a maternal hand. All of her steely, senatorial imposition having melted away. 

“I’m no Jedi,” she admitted, “But I did some studying in my youth, before I chose my path. I’ve read of such connections before. I’ll contact my brother, he’ll help us get to the bottom of this.” 

Ben shook his head and buried it in his hands, trembling all over. He didn’t care about the origin of the bond, he didn’t care what it  _ meant _ . And he certainly didn’t want to undo it, Right now the only thing that mattered to him was Rey, and they’d taken her from him. Hidden her somewhere within the labyrinthine halls of the mansion. 

“What’s wrong with her?” He pled. “If you won’t let me see her at least tell me what’s wrong.” 

“The doctor isn’t certain yet. She’s running some preliminary tests, and they have her on IV fluids and antibiotics in the meantime. The baby looked healthy on the ultrasound. About twelve weeks along, they have a strong heartbeat.”

Ben stiffened beside his mother, face going hot that they had done that without him present, without Rey conscious and unable to look at the little one  _ they _ had made.  _ Their _ baby. His fists balled, white knuckled. 

Leia took immediate notice of his tension and recovered with her usual grace. “You should be clear to visit now that she’s settled in. Come, I’ll show you where.” 

Rey’s makeshift clinic wasn’t far from his own room. A room set aside for political guests, they had her laid out on the right side of a four poster bed. All of the maroon drapery of its canopy had been pulled aside, leaving her waifish form exposed. She was still pale, but with the introduction of fluids she already appeared less skeletal. 

The beep of the heart monitor made Ben’s eyes prickle with tears. Sniffing, he held them back, slinking to her side. Doctor Kalonia and her Twi’lek assistant watched from across the room, pausing over a small centrifuge. 

“I hardly know her.” He admitted quietly. Kneeling beside the bed he brushed his thumb over her pale knuckles. An IV ran into the back of her hand. “I don’t understand why I feel like this.”

Ben’s dark, doleful eyes sought out his mother’s, trying to make her understand. His whole world was being shaken to its core, his very understanding of himself was being tested. Everything ached. He hardly knew this beautiful, dying woman. But he loved her. 

Leia swallowed hard, stepping aside as the Doctor and assistant respectfully exited the room. 

Once the door clicked shut behind them she moved to stand behind her son. Grey brow furrowed she looked over her boy and the girl on the bed. Ben knew that she could feel it as well, the little light that fluttered in Rey. It was a fascinating, awe inspiring little thing. 

He would kill for them. Either of them. Both of them. It was a simple, freeing realization. 

“The Force works in strange ways.” Leia rationalized, laying a hand on her son’s shoulder. “Perhaps this is a thing of fate.” 

Ben nodded in agreement, eyes never wavering from Rey. They had stripped her out of her desert garb and into a paper gown. It swallowed her up, made her look smaller than she already was. 

“For now I think you should stay here with her.” She permitted, “Both of you feel…  _ calmer _ now that you’re together. Just don’t get in Doctor Kalonia’s way. She’s here to help.”

“Okay.” Ben said, rising back up to his feet. His knees ached from the hardwood. “Thank you.” 

Leia nodded, “I’ll have your meals sent up here as well.” 

Her dark eyes trailed up to meet his, and she gave a weak smile. “Stars. You’re a man now, aren’t you?”

Ben blinked at his mother, taken aback. 

“And a father as well. How time flies. I’m getting old.” With a husky laugh she padded out of the room, leaving Ben alone with Rey and his thoughts. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is getting quite out of hand for a Tumblr prompt, but I gotta say it is a blast to write. It may even pan out to five chapters depending on if I decide to actually show the baby or not? (That is something you can comment your opinion on or hmu on tumblr/twitter). 
> 
> That being said I still have to finish a fic for a Valentine's exchange, so it will probably be at least two weeks before the next update. Thank you so much for reading! I'm sorry I didn't reply to many comments last chapter, I've been crazy busy, but I promise I read and cherish them all! They really do keep me going.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When he turned back to her she half tackled him onto the thin, hospital grade mattress, catching his face between her hands and kissing him hard on the mouth. 
> 
> _I think I love you._
> 
> He shuddered as she spoke through the bond, deft tongue sweeping past his lips. She tasted sweet, having been given the chance to freshen up and eat a full meal. Her fingers jerked hastily at the hem of his t-shirt, feeling up and under at the rolling musculature of his abdomen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... next chapter is the epilogue I promise.

Rey’s prognosis was good. Not as promising as a clean bill of health might have been, but Doctor Kalonia insisted it was nothing she hadn’t seen before, that this case had been exacerbated by Rey’s environment. A rare case of extreme morning sickness in conjunction with an ordinary stomach virus. Antivirals were administered before sunset on the first day, along with an anti nausea agent; clear fluids pumping promisingly through an IV on the back of her pale hand. 

She likely would have perished in the wastes of Jakku, but here, on Chandrila, with access to the finest doctors, technology, and medicine the galaxy had to offer? The prognosis was very good for mother  _ and  _ baby.

They offered to show him the scans from the ultrasound. But it felt wrong to see them before Rey. When she woke up they would look together. Then, once she was strong enough, they would discuss options. 

Ben slept uneasily, upright in a chair he had dragged to be beside the bed. His mother had brought up a cot for him, but he was afraid that if he left Rey’s side, even just a few scant feet of distance, she would dissolve away into nothing. He dozed, jerking awake every now and again, shafts of pale moonlight coloring her sickly skin blue. 

His thumb brushed over the backs of her knuckles, sparks jumping between their skin. It didn’t make any sense to him, all this Force mumbo jumbo. Ben took after his father in that respect. But this stretched taut and hot between himself and this scavenger, this strange energy which tethered them together, it felt right. 

The little light was still there as well. Dim but never fading. It gave a steady hum like any living being might, only smaller, nearly imperceptible. Ben was reassured nonetheless by its constant presence. It helped him find peace in those few moments where he managed to close his tired eyes, burning with exhaustion. 

Finally, he started awake to the first warm rays of dawn, the horizon blushing pink over endless fields beyond the windows. 

Lying stock still, stiff with fear, Rey’s honey eyes watched him from the hospital bed. 

She was awake. He knew he should call for the Doctor but fear and confusion were rolling off of her in waves. More than anything he wanted to take that away from her. She should never be afraid of him. 

“It’s okay.” Ben said, voice laced with warmth. He leaned forward and laid a hand over hers on the bed. She didn’t try to jerk away. Her skin was warmer than it had been the night before. Perhaps it was a trick of the dawn, but she seemed to have more color in her cheeks as well. 

For the first time Ben Solo used their bond knowingly, and with intention. It was a strange sensation, to open himself up so entirely. Never had he been so vulnerable before. Swallowing hard and shutting his eyes in concentration, he allowed a sense of stillness and calm to pass between them. Rey was safe, the baby was safe. No one would harm them here. 

Slowly, he felt her hand relax beneath his, a shuddering breath escaping her chapped lips. 

“What happened?” She asked, and then through their bond;  _ I don’t remember. _

“You were sick and called out to me.” Ben scooted the chair closer. 

Rey nodded, blinking. She swallowed and he sensed the dryness of her mouth, “I remember that much… You came.”

Her voice wavered, eyes growing glassy and distant. Dumbfounded, afraid of her own emotions. She hadn’t expected him to come back for her. He remembered the tallies on the wall and was flooded with murderous outrage towards whoever had abandoned such a precious creature to a life of slavery on Jakku. 

Rey recoiled at the intensity of his emotions, the bond still raw and open between them. Ben pulled back slightly, shielding her from the brunt of it as he took a few calming breaths. 

“Of course I came,” thick with emotion, he gathered her hand in both of his, mindful of her IV port. “I couldn’t stay away. I would have come eventually, baby or no. I was sick with grief over having to leave you behind, I could hardly sleep.” 

Rey blinked, and though she said nothing he knew she understood that same need. 

“Is this a Force thing?” She queried, gaze going to the window. 

Ben nodded affirmatively, “I think it is. I think that bond we experienced on Jakku never really went away.” 

“Is the baby okay?” Her free hand shifted to rest over her middle. 

“Yes. You have— or had— a virus, and severe morning sickness. The Doctor here is treating you for both. Both of you will be okay.” He wanted to lay a hand over hers, over where the life they had made was growing, but he also didn’t want to overstep and frighten the already apprehensive girl. 

Her eyes roved nervously around the room, and she moved to sit up a bit, wincing painfully as her muscles stretched and joints cracked from disuse. 

“Where is ‘here’?” 

“My homeworld, Chandrila. We’re staying in an estate not far from the Capitol. I grew up here.” He gave a gentle smile. Bringing her back to his childhood home carried all sorts of connotations. 

Blinking, Rey sniffed, shifting her weight to sit more comfortably on the mattress. She was more at ease now that the blanks had been filled in, he sensed no more fear from her, nor apprehension. Just a spike of sudden, intense curiosity. 

Rey looked down to her flat— the Doctor had assured him that it was perfectly normal not to be showing at twelve weeks— stomach, sniffed again, then met his gaze with keen intensity. 

“Does this mean we’re married now?”

If Ben had been sipping water, he would have spat it out at the combined strangeness and bluntness of the question. What was marriage on Jakku that she would think that? 

“No!” He rushed to correct her, not wanting her to take offence. Then, as her face steeled and she withdrew from him, Ben realized he may have  _ overcorrected _ in his haste, “Wait, I just meant— Fuck, Rey. I’m an idiot. It’s a family trait. You should know that, if we’re going to have a kid together.” 

He leaned forward, sitting on the edge of his chair. He gathered her hand close to his mouth so she could feel his breath ghosting her skin. “Marriage is more than just sex and babies in most of the galaxy. It’s a commitment. A promise to always stick together, no matter what.”

Ben thought of his parents. How through all of their ups and downs they had always been there for him, and in the end, each other. That was true love. Enduring, never waning, flaring in the darkest of days when it was needed most. 

Rey’s eyes flashed ponderously, her head tilting cutely as she considered his words. 

Ben’s full lips brushed the backs of her knuckles and on his tongue he could taste the faint tang of medical sterility, “We have some things we need to figure out before we can talk about something like marriage. But we  _ will _ talk about it. Understand?” 

“I think so.” Her voice was quiet, cracked lips parted. 

They were so close, both alone and conscious for the first time since their fateful meeting on Jakku. Eyes fluttering closed, Ben leaned forward, tasting the staleness of her breath in the air between them, but not caring enough to pull away. He wanted Rey. Only Rey. Every fiber of his being cried out for her and when their lips brushed with tentative, bated breaths, he felt as though he had burst into flames. 

Then Doctor Kalonia and his mother burst unceremoniously through the door and the moment was shattered. Ben reeled away and Rey jerked back, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Their lips had hardly touched and yet Ben felt like lighting had shot through him. 

On the bed, between Rey’s hips, the little light shone sudden and bright, like it too had sensed the contact and was excited by it. It’s parents reunited. 

“Sorry to interrupt,” Leia quirked a scolding eyebrow at her son. “But we  _ did _ tell you to come fetch us as soon as she woke, no?” 

Ben flushed, saying nothing. 

“Right.” The two older women moved to the edge of the bed opposite Ben. Eyes roving over Rey appraisingly, for different reasons. 

“How are you feeling?” The Doctor asked, producing a temperature gun from her coat and pointing it at Rey’s forehead. “Any nausea? Headache?” 

Rey shook her head, looking a touch flustered. She shifted ever so slightly towards Ben and he took her hand again, stroking her knuckles soothingly. They hardly knew each other, and yet it felt so natural to comfort her. 

“No… I feel weak, but mostly normal, I think.” 

Kalonia nodded and tucked the gun back into her coat, retreating to her makeshift station across the room to gather some supplies. 

Leia immediately stepped up to take her place beside the bed. 

She gave a kind, motherly smile and extended a hand, which Rey took with uncertainty. “I’m Leia, Ben’s mother. It’s good to meet you, though I wish it could have been under better circumstances.” 

“Rey.” Rey said in answer, and Ben could sense her acute discomfort with the situation. It was understandable, these weren’t ideal circumstances in which to meet your unborn child’s famous grandmother. 

_ Oh _ . Rey didn’t know about that part yet. The fame thing. She’d accidentally fucked herself into literal galactic royalty. He’d tell her later, now hardly seemed the time. 

“Mom,” Ben cautioned. The warning in his tone light but serious. “She’s been through a lot, let’s keep things simple for now.” 

Leia rolled her eyes, “Of course, of course.” 

Kalonia pushed past Leia once more. A syringe and several empty vials clutched in her gloved hands, “Just need to take a bit more blood to make sure things are progressing well. Though it seems you are responding beautifully to treatment. We’ll keep you on oral anti-nausea medication and begin a protein rich diet to help with weight gain.” 

Rey paled at the sight of the needle. Ben squeezed her hand and pressed wordless reassurance through their bond. 

She had probably never had blood drawn before the previous night, and she had been distinctly unconscious at that point. How many mundane things had she never experienced? A well cooked meal? A hot shower? The vast majority of colors excluded from Jakku’s drab palette? 

Ben thought of the windows behind him which looked out onto endless rolling plains speckled with sparkling blue lakes. Wildflowers might be blooming as they spoke, he hadn’t taken the time to check on such a minute detail since they’d arrived. 

When the doctor gave the okay he would take her outside and begin to show her all those simple wonders she had never known. Thinking of the splendor in her warm eyes as she plucked tiny white blooms was enough to make him feel warm. He thought of showing her how to weave their stems into a crown, of tucking one behind her ear and kissing her lips. 

He thought of her tackling him playfully backwards into the grass, pinning his hands in a grip that he could easily shatter if he wanted to. But he didn’t want to. He thought of kissing her breathless, of sex on a picnic blanket under the radiant warmth of the Chandrila sun. 

“Unclench your fist for me.” Kalonia’s voice shattered his reverie, and Ben shifted uncomfortably to disguise his erection. 

Rey was clearly flushed, and the Doctor was worrying softly over the possibility of relapse. 

Rey glanced accusingly at Ben from the corner of her eye.  _ Bastard.  _

She had seen it too, then. And from the sparks that jumped their way across the bond, he could tell that she’d liked it. 

Once it was determined that Rey was  _ not _ about to collapse back into a feverish sleep, Leia kept the conversation going. 

“Are you ready to see the ultrasound pictures?” She asked, squeezing Rey’s arm and grinning excitedly. 

Rey blinked and let out an uneasy breath. She was so young, for her the pregnancy must have still been a mighty shock. 

Voice weak and uncertain, she replied, “I need some time.”

“Take all the time you need. For now, let’s get you freshened up as best we can.” Rey relaxed a hair under the gentle touch of Leia’s hands, subsequently putting Ben at ease as well.

  
  


**_That Evening_ **

Looking over the ultrasounds had been distinctly emotional. Initially Rey had been cold, walling off her emotions, even from the bond. But as Kalonia had pointed to the little features she could ascertain on the hologram, zooming in and detailing how things would progress, Rey became more and more flustered. 

Seeing the baby, even just in the flickering blue of the holo, was enough to make it real for her, and for Ben. When she reached for his hand, seeking comfort, he gently asked his mother and Kalonia to leave. 

A beat of awkward silence had passed between them, Leia glancing between her son and Rey who was still stony faced on the bed. She was expert at hiding the war waging inside of her. The fear, the trepidation, the raw relief and emotion at finally finding a maybe family to belong to. It bled through the bond, and Ben felt it all and then some as it blended with his own intense reactions to seeing his child. 

Leia seemed to sense some level of tumult, and quickly motioned herself and the doctor from the room; the ultrasound still projected in the air beside the bed. 

As soon as the door clicked shut behind them Rey buckled beneath the pressure of her own emotions. A soft cry tearing from her throat. 

“Rey…” Ben moved to sit on the edge of the bed, carefully sliding an arm around her shoulders. 

She crumbled into his side like she was made to fit there, hiding her face in his shoulder as she wept. 

He held her closer, pressing his lips to her temple. There was nothing he could say to relieve this, as much as he hated to see her ache. Her world had been upended in the last twenty-four hours. She was back from the brink of death, coming to terms with her pregnancy in the third month, and surrounded by strange people. Rey needed this release. 

Between them the bond snapped and shuddered, weeping with her outpouring of emotion. Fear, anxiety, disbelief, and shimmering bright beneath those things was profound relief. 

Once she had calmed some, and her breath came interspersed with tiny hiccups, she looked to Ben with swollen eyes and whispered what must have been one of her darkest, most deeply hidden hurts, “No one ever came back for me before you.” 

Ben opened his mouth, then closed it again, at a loss for words. 

“Why?” She begged, the question coming out ragged. 

“I don’t…” Ben trailed off, unable to break eye contact. She was looking to him expectantly. She wanted an answer, a verbal confirmation of her worth. He realized she had never felt worthy before, never wanted or valuable. 

“I think we’re meant to be together,” He began carefully. “That somehow the Force, or maybe just  _ I _ , sensed your loneliness. And now, I mean we hardly know each other but I can’t…” 

He stumbled, needing to convey the depth of his feelings. He drew in a deep, centering breath and began again, “Rey, when you called out to me, I’ve never been so afraid. I was fucking terrified. When we got back they had to pry you out of my arms.” 

Rey blinked at him, “I don’t get it. Is it because of the baby?” 

His eyes strayed to the hologram fetus still hovering in the air before them. He loved it already, sure, but it hadn’t been what motivated him that first day on Jakku. The baby wasn’t the thing that sent fire blazing over his flesh whenever he kissed Rey. 

“No. No, it was because of you,” almost automatically, he spoke, with rising emotion. “Maybe this is a Force thing, but it’s also a fate thing, an  _ us _ thing. You and me. Ben and Rey.” 

And then he spoke the words that might have drawn her ire, made her hate him forever for calling back and comparing himself to the source of her strife. 

“We’re a family now. You and me. The baby is part of that, too. But even if you weren’t pregnant I would have come back for you, I would have found another reason. It was only a matter of time.  _ We’re family _ .” His grip on her waist had tightened, and he’d never wanted to kiss her more desperately than in that moment. 

A rasping, shuddering breath passed Rey’s lips, and she shut her eyes against tears for a moment. 

“Can you turn that hologram off?” She managed reservedly, working hard to keep her feelings from bleeding through to him. 

Ben leaned forward and carefully, as though he were touching the face of his actual infant, disabled the projector. The hologram flickered off and the room was a shade dimmer for it. Outside, the sun was setting, Kalonia had assured him Rey would be okay to go outside within the week. 

When he turned back to her she half tackled him onto the thin hospital grade mattress, catching his face between her hands and kissing him hard on the mouth. 

_ I think I love you _ . 

He shuddered as she spoke through the bond, deft tongue sweeping past his lips. She tasted sweet, having been given the chance to freshen up and eat a full meal. Her fingers jerked hastily at the hem of his t-shirt, feeling up and under at the rolling musculature of his abdomen. 

“I love you, too.” He gasped, breaking the kiss. “You feel up to this?” 

She nodded, eyes fierce, “I couldn’t stop thinking about it after you left.” She tugged impatiently at his shirt and Ben shucked it over his head, tossing it away into a corner. “You made me feel so good. I want it again.” 

Smiling mischievously, she leaned over his newly bared torso, running her hands over the swells of his pectorals. Her breath stirred his hair, lips brushing against the shell of his ear, “Sometimes, when it got really lonely, I would touch myself  _ there _ and pretend it was you.” 

Ben gulped, nearly choking on spit. His dick had stirred to life in his pants and was pressing uncomfortably against his fly. Fuck, that was hot.  _ Really hot _ . 

He could picture it if he closed his eyes. Rey whining and needy in her hammock. Naked and flushed, fingers working furiously into her tight little cunt, his name on her rosy lips, fingers never quite enough. 

“Okay,” Ben agreed, flipping her easily onto her back despite her yelping in complaint. “But I’m on top. I don’t want you overexerting yourself.” 

He pressed a trail of searing kisses down the column of her throat; the paper gown they had her in tore away easily under his hands, leaving her blissfully and totally bare with almost no effort. He tried not to be jarred by the emaciated state of her body; the illness and sickness had wasted much of his beautiful little scavenger away. Her collarbones jutted and he could count her ribs. 

Rey looked to him dolefully, pleading with him silently not to recoil in disgust at her weakened body. 

But Ben would love anything Rey had to give him, and even in her diminished state she was radiant. He palmed one of her small breasts and leaned forward to kiss her mouth roughly. 

“ _ Still beautiful _ ,” He breathed into her skin. 

He took his time with the scavenger, sucking pretty blooming bruises into the skin of her throat and collarbone and breasts for Kalonia to find later. Rey mewled and shook under him, and when he dragged two fingers through the dewy warmth of her folds she had to cover her mouth to keep from crying out. 

“Shhh,” Ben soothed, pausing to toy with her clit. “Don’t want any interruptions, do we?” 

Rey shook her head and canted her hips into his fingers, “Ben, please I want more.” 

“More?” He sat back on his knees, legs bracketing her hips. He toyed lazily with his fly, teasing her. Rey could see the outline of his hard cock against the fabric of his pants, straining, wanting for her touch, the warm sheath of her body. 

It was painful, throbbing and insistent. 

“Please…” She struggled for words, it was only her second time. “Please, Ben. I want you to fuck me.” 

At her entreaty Ben undid his fly and shucked off his trousers and underwear in a single, semi-fluid motion. Who was he to deny her anything? 

Leaning over her, they came face to face. Ben gazed into her eyes as he aliged his cock between their bodies, the swollen head prodding insistently at her tight entrance. 

“Ready?” He asked gently, tracing a line over her pronounced cheekbone. 

“Yeah.” Rey replied, tangling one hand into his hair, the other tracing a careful line down the curve of his spine as he slowly pressed in, savoring the sensation of her hot, tight cunt stretching to accommodate his heft.

Rey gasped and threw her head, bucking her hips as he seated himself as deeply as their anatomies would allow. Ben shuddered at her warmth and wet and the way her internal muscles gripped his shaft so sublimely. 

Surely, he thought, as he sealed their lips in a kiss and began to thrust, they were made for each other. She fit him like a glove, and she took every inch of him like she was born to do so. The Force had brought them together because they were never meant to be apart, they were fools to have even tried. 

“Oh fuck—

Her expletive was cut off by a guttural moan. Locking her ankles at the small of his back Rey alternated between kissing him sloppily and hissing curses into the sweltering air between their bodies. Her gaze never straying far from where he plundered her, entranced by the sight of his slick cock on each egress, further aroused by the wet slapping of their joining. 

Her nails bit hard into the skin of his shoulders and back, and Ben watched hungrily as her pretty tits bounced under him with each forward motion of his body. His balls slapped her ass lewdly and her cunt hugged him more tightly with each stroke. Neither of them were going to last long. 

Rey let her hands trail down the sweat dampened expanse of his musculature, eyes wandering appreciatively, hands stopping to paw at his lower stomach as he fucked her into the mattress. 

“Good?” He panted, ducking his head to nip at her shoulder. There was already a bruise blooming pink across the skin there. 

“So, so good,” She whimpered, thrashing her head. The bond began to creep open, and a familiar bleed of sensation began to take hold. Ben began to lose track of who was being fucked and who was doing the fucking. The sweet sharp sting of his cock stretching her to capacity zinged at the back of his sex-addled brain. 

Losing herself in the flood, Rey wound her arms around his shoulders, each of them wanting to feel the other as closely as was physically possible. 

_ Kiss me _ . She thought, and he felt her pussy pulse and tighten as she neared her precipice. 

His mouth crashed into hers in time with a particularly sharp thrust of his hips, his pubic bone rubbing up against her clit. Rey keened into the smuggler’s full mouth and came. 

Her orgasm triggered his. A flash of white behind his eyes accompanied by an all encompassing pleasure. His cock throbbed as he emptied inside of her; this time without risk. 

As they came down, Ben flipped onto his back, pulling Rey’s small body across his chest. They panted and kissed wordlessly, hands caressing and soothing in the afterglow for a few cherished moments. 

_ We’re family. _ Ben reasserted through the bond, dragging his fingers soothingly over her back, dipping into the notches of her spine. 

“Yes.” Rey agreed aloud, shutting her eyes. 

He could sense her exhaustion, her body still weak from her ordeal. The sex was reaffirming but now she needed to sleep. Between them the little light was fluttering, unaware of the carnal act that had just occurred but certainly thriving off of their increased use of the bond. 

“Rest,” Ben breathed, suddenly overwhelmed. This was his woman, that was his baby; unborn yet so, so lively. He kissed Rey’s hair. It smelled of shampoo, freshly washed. “I’ll be here when you wake up.” 

“Promise?” It was a half question, softly uttered on the precipice of sleep. A fear that had followed her here from Jakku. Ben suspected it would take some time to help her overcome it. 

“I promise,” He said, lips flush to her forehead. “I’ll never leave you, Rey. You’ll never be alone again. We belong together. We’re family.” 

She was already snoring softly, face neutral and relaxed. 

Ben shifted his shoulders, settling in to guard her sleep from nightmares. 

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I upped the chapter count ONE final time. I promise next chapter is the epilogue (in which we get to meet the babie). 
> 
> I'm currently in the midst of a social media break for mental health reasons. But you can find my links below and follow if you'd like! I'll come back eventually. 
> 
> In the meantime feel free to share this with friends/folks you think might like it. Thanks!


	5. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“We’re fine.” Rey mumbled, combing fingers through the mop of their daughter’s dark curls. Maybe it was irresponsible to bring her along, but between herself, Ben, and Chewie there was always someone to stay behind and watch her on the ship. And Rey would be remiss to leave her own child behind halfway across the galaxy. She knew what the cold sting of abandonment felt like, and swore she would never subject her own issue to that cruelty, even if it meant toting her across the galaxy and sitting a mission or two out. Ben felt similarly. So they made it a family affair, the whole smuggling thing._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short and sweet to finish things out. Enjoy <3

_ Rey’s PoV _

If two years previous someone had told Rey she’d be making the jump into hyperspace while being trailed by Spice Cartel modified starfighters, she would have laughed in their face. If they had told her she’d be doing it in the company of her newly minted husband with their six month old on her hip, she would have clocked them for being cruel. 

But there she was, hand on the throttle, baby chewing a chubby fist, held to her side. 

Rey chuckled, clutching the armrest of the copilot’s chair to keep herself steady. Beside her Ben was whitefaced to see her still on her feet and not strapped into a seat.. Through the transparisteel windows the spots of the stars blurred into bluish lines of light, and the  _ Millennium Falcon  _ jerked clunkily into hyperspace. 

Once the initial turbulence had subsided, and they were certain they had lost their pursuers, Ben sprang to his feet, glowering at her. 

“What were you thinking?” He exclaimed, his usual arrogance diminishing almost entirely in the presence of his wife. There was no need for pretense here. They could be, and were, genuine with one another in a way they could be with no one else. 

Rey sighed. Hana gurgled obliviously on her hip, still happily chewing on her own tiny fingers. This was their first smuggling run as newlyweds, and their second without Han. She didn’t want to ruin things by arguing, especially not in front of the baby, who was deeply perceptive despite her newness to the world. 

“We’re fine.” Rey mumbled, combing fingers through the mop of their daughter’s dark curls. Maybe it was irresponsible to bring her along, but between herself, Ben, and Chewie there was always someone to stay behind and watch her on the ship. And Rey would be remiss to leave her own child behind halfway across the galaxy. She knew what the cold sting of abandonment felt like, and swore she would never subject her own issue to that cruelty, even if it meant toting her across the galaxy and sitting a mission or two out. Ben felt similarly. So they made it a family affair, the whole smuggling thing. 

“That was ridiculously stupid.” Ben argued, and Chewie slipped wordlessly from the cockpit, anticipating a marital spat. “You could have gone flying, one of you could have been hurt. The jump could have waited a second while you strapped in.” 

It was a struggle not to roll her eyes at him. “They were right on us Ben. If we’d waited any longer we’d all be space dust right now.” 

His nostrils flared and his handsome face lit up in anger, but he didn’t argue. He couldn’t. She was right. 

Hana seemed to sense the tension between her parents and whined, face scrunching up as though she were experiencing some sort of discomfort. Rey remembered how responsive she had been to the bond, even during the pregnancy. When her parents fought, she had kicked like mad. Rey found no peace or rest until she slunk back to Ben and they made up. 

She was sure now that this tiny child was the reason the Force had brought herself and Ben together that blissfully fateful day on Jakku, though she could not yet say why. 

Immediately all animosity melted from the air, both parents reacting instinctively to their baby’s unease. Rey hushed her, swinging her carefully onto her other hip so Hana could be closer to her father who now loomed over them like a protective shadow. 

“I’ll be more careful in the future.” Rey acquiesced, attention split between the two great loves of her short life. Her lips brushed her daughter’s hair and one of Ben’s wide hands cupped the small of her back, urging her closer to his chest. 

The bond which stretched always between them opened in a flood of warm, delicate emotions, and Hana became quiet. Her eyelids fluttered, tiny mouth parting, as if the sudden onslaught of tender feelings lulled her half to sleep. 

“Thank you.” Ben kissed Rey’s hair, “We should put her down for a nap. It’ll be a few hours ‘til we get back to Chandrila. If she’s grumpy I won’t hear the end of it from mom.” 

Reluctantly they parted and the bond drew tight once more; letting through only a trickle of vague thoughts and sensations rather than the torrent they shared moments previous. Hana was unperturbed, slumped over and dozing on Rey’s shoulder. A string of drool connected the baby’s round face to her mother’s leather jacket. 

They took her to the makeshift nursery. What had once been a supply closet gutted out and outfitted with a crib that Han bolted to the floor and a mobile Ben had wired into the ceiling. It was crude in a way, but utterly and entirely Solo. 

Careful not to jostle her, Rey laid Hana gently in the center of the crib. A stuffed lothcat and its companion wolf watched over her tiny, sleeping form with button eyes, promising to watch over the babe even as her mother and father retreated back out into the hallway.

One of the  _ Falcon’s  _ resident porgs tottled by their feet, slipping through the crack in the nursery door. It meant no harm; the little birds were simply drawn to the child. They liked to play with her and watch her when she slept. Their glassy eyes were always on her, peeking around corners and from air vents. It was odd, but Rey didn’t mind the extra supervision. 

Ben chuckled as he noticed the spot of saliva on Rey’s shoulder. This time she  _ did _ roll her eyes at him, “Like she’s never drooled on you.” 

Ben’s grin only widened, and Rey found herself flustered by the beauty of that boyish smile, “Of course I have, but it’s funny when you aren’t the one being drooled on.” 

Rey snorted, but changed the topic as they made their way back to the cockpit, “Your mom will be pleased. We now have concrete proof of the cartel’s activities in the mid-rim.” 

Ben nodded, “It’s a big deal.” 

They came to the cockpit and each slipped into their respective chairs. 

“Maybe it’ll be enough to divert some attention away from us.” Rey postulated, throwing her feet up over the controls. Her boots were black bantha leather, a smaller more feminine version of Ben’s. 

The reaction of the media to the sudden marriage of the only living Organa-Skywalker heir to a literal Nobody had been mixed, to say the least. The speculation and dialogue around Rey had been particularly brutal. In the last year her vocabulary had expanded to include a litany of new terms which had never reached her on Jakku. Most of them insulting towards her character, all critical of her sex. 

“Maybe.” Ben’s hands tensed on the armrests. He was deeply protective of her, she knew. It bothered him more than her when people whispered behind their backs. 

He’d broken a paparazzi's jaw when she was eight months pregnant. The zabrak had gotten too close for comfort. After that photographers kept a respectful distance, as respectful as they could be while violating someone’s privacy. 

“Ben.” Rey leaned over, resting a hand over his. He met her eyes and his gaze was guarded. He was tense, overthinking like he was prone to do. Ever since they had left for this mission he had been  _ overthinking. _ He tried to hide it, but there were no secrets between those tethered by a bond, they had learned that very early on in their relationship. 

“Everything’s going to be fine.” She reassured him, thumb brushing the backs of his knuckles. “We’ve weathered worse than a little media attention.”

She remembered how they met, those few terrible months without him. Alone and pregnant and ill. She showed him, too, and his body tensed impossibly further at the memory. Ben gripped her hand tightly in his own, dwarfing her like he always did. 

“I don’t want this for us, for Hana. I don’t want a life in the spotlight, smuggling and hustling to serve my family’s political interests,” He leaned closer and Rey could feel the warmth of his breath on her face, over her lips. His dark eyes were wet and intense. “Let’s stop after this. Call it quits. Retire the  _ Falcon _ and bring her with us. We’ll find our own home, make our own way. Just you, me, and Hana. Our family.” 

_ Their family _ . The one they had made together. Accidental as their joining may have been. Rey shuddered under the intensity of his gaze; always made weak by his eyes, the strange lines of his long, handsome face. Force help her, what had she done to deserve this man, this life? She feared each night when she laid her head down that she would awaken on Jakku and find it had all been a dream. And each morning she rose to the plying tease of her husband’s skilled fingers, the press of his lips and the fire in his eyes. The cries of her baby, soft hair and a gaze filled with wonder at each new experience. 

Ben was right. They deserved peace and happiness in a place all their own. 

She kissed him in answer. A silent  _ Yes _ . Rey slipped between their seats so she could straddle his lap, fingers tangling into the dark waves of his hair. 

Stars, she was the luckiest woman in the galaxy, to be bound up to a man like this. She never should have doubted the Force for a second. 

_ I love you,  _ Rey pressed through the bond.  _ So much _ . 

And it was true. The truest words to ever cross her mind. He had saved her from endless years of isolation, he had given Rey her child who napped angelically just a few walls away. 

_ I love you, too _ . Ben thought back, kissing her hard. 

And Rey knew she was home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow this prompt fill really got out of hand, but I hope everyone had a good time! It was very fun to write. 
> 
> I'm still in the midst of a mental health break and have no way to share this completed fic on any media currently, so I'd greatly appreciate if folks would share with friends!
> 
> Let me know what you think of the crime family. <3

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi!
> 
> Twitter: [@bitt3rbones](https://twitter.com/bitt3rbones)
> 
> Tumblr: [dvrkrey](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dvrkrey)


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